The present invention relates to graphical user interfaces, and more particularly to methods of combining user interfaces, such as zooming in/out, panning, rotating, drawing, selecting, manipulating, etc., for a graphics display.
Within the prior art, a user may zoom in a graphical display by drawing a rectangle around an area of interest. A common “zoom-in” function is to click-and-hold to define the position of one corner of the rectangle; drag the mouse, pen, trackball, or finger to stretch the opposite corner to the desired shape and size; then drop or un-click to complete the action. The mentioned sequence results in the magnification of the graphical objects inside the rectangle. That is, the area of interest fills the entire display.
In order to increase productivity, and to help avoid repetitive strain type injures, there remains a need to zoom out without requiring the user to activate a separate zoom-out function, such as an action involving a keyboard, menu, tool bar icon, or click of alternate buttons on the mouse or pen.
There remains a need to pan, zoom in/out by alternate methods, rotate, adjust image attributes, sectional cut positions, time axis, or data sets displayed in a graph, etc., without requiring the user to activate a separate function by an additional click, drag, or keyboard press action.